Like the «a» in «father», but short. Without opening it too wide or dragging it out.
ローマ字 · rōmaji
Romaji: Japanese written with our letters
The transcription of Japanese into the Latin alphabet. It is useful for getting going on day one and for typing, and it gets in the way as soon as you go beyond that. Here is why.
Japanese in Latin letters: useful in the first week, a ceiling from the second.
What romaji is
Romaji is writing Japanese sounds with our alphabet: konnichiwa, arigatō, Tōkyō. The system used almost everywhere is Hepburn, which was designed so that an English speaker would read it roughly right, on one condition: the vowels are read as in Spanish or Italian, short and always the same, and not as in English.
It is indispensable in two places: at the very beginning, so you can say something before you can read, and on the keyboard, because in Japan people type in romaji and let the computer convert it. Beyond that, it is not used in Japan: signs, menus and books do not carry it.
And it has a fundamental problem: it hides the structure of the language. Japanese is organised into syllables of equal length, and that structure explains how verbs are conjugated and why words sound the way they do. Written in romaji, that disappears — and with it, half the explanation of the grammar.
The good news: kana takes a week to learn. Romaji is not a longer road, it is a road that does not get there.
The five vowels, which are the easy part
Japanese has five vowels, and they sound much like the Spanish or Italian ones: pure, short and always the same. For an English speaker the only work is keeping them from sliding into other sounds, as English vowels do, and it is worth knowing that before you start.
Like the «ee» in «see», but short. The same in every word.
Like the «oo» in «food», but short and with the lips relaxed, not rounded. It is the one that strays furthest.
Like the «e» in «bed». It never turns into «ay».
Close to the «o» in «pot», with slightly rounder lips, and never gliding into «oh». Short, except when it is long and marked.
What romaji hides from you
Four things that are obvious in kana and have to be memorised in Latin letters.
- は → wa The particle written one way and said another. In kana you see は and learn the rule once. In romaji you see «wa» and never know whether it is は or わ, which are two different signs with two different uses.
- ō ū Long vowels. They last two beats and change the word. In romaji they are marked with a bar on top that hardly anyone writes, so «Tokyo» and «Tōkyō» end up looking the same, and they are not.
- っ The double consonant. In kana it is a small sign you can see; in romaji it is a repeated letter that gets read straight through. And the difference between «kite» and «kitte» is real.
- ん The n that lasts. It is a whole syllable, not a consonant stuck to the one before. Written «n» next to another letter, that length is lost and the rhythm of the sentence comes out wrong.
Romaji in depth
Three ways of writing the same thing
There is no single romaji. Hepburn, the most widespread outside Japan and in stations, writes syllables as an English speaker would hear them: し is «shi», ち «chi», つ «tsu» and ふ «fu». Kunrei, which the Japanese government established last century, prefers the regularity of the chart and writes «si», «ti», «tu» and «hu», because those are the rows of さ, た and は. And there is keyboard romaji, which copies the kana spelling letter by letter: «toukyou» instead of «Tōkyō».
The difference that confuses most is in long vowels. Hepburn marks them with a bar on top, but the bar almost never makes it onto signs, brand names or people's names, and so «Tōkyō» ends up written «Tokyo», which, read literally, is two beats shorter. Others double the vowel, «Tookyoo», or add an h, especially in surnames. For the learner the conclusion is simple: the romaji you see around is not reliable for knowing how long a vowel lasts, and kana is, because there the long vowel is always written.
How Japanese is typed
On a computer Japanese is typed in romaji and the system converts it. You type «nihongo», にほんご appears, and pressing the space bar offers the possible spellings, among them 日本語. You pick one, confirm and carry on. The keyboard follows the kana spelling and not the pronunciation, so the particle は is typed «ha», を is typed «wo», ん is made safe with «nn» and the long o of とうきょう is typed «toukyou», with the う it has in kana.
Two details save some stumbles. The double consonant is typed by repeating the letter, «kitte» for きって, and if you need a stand-alone っ you type «ltu» or «xtu». Compound syllables come out on their own: «kya» gives きゃ and «sho», しょ. On a phone, however, what is usual in Japan is not romaji but a kana keyboard where you slide your finger from each consonant towards its vowel. Typing in romaji also has a hidden reward: it forces you to know how each word is spelled in kana.
What romaji does not tell you about pronunciation
Read with English-speaking eyes, romaji has traps. The vowels come first: they never change, so «e» is never «ee» and a final «e» is always pronounced, as in «sake», which is sa-ke. The g is always hard, as in «go», also in «ge» and «gi». The f of «fu» is not an English f: the lips barely come together, closer to blowing out a candle. The z is a voiced s, as in «zoo». And the r is neither the English r nor a rolled one: it is a single quick tap of the tongue, close to the «tt» in the American pronunciation of «butter», even at the start of a word.
Nor does it say anything about rhythm. «Sensei» seems to have two syllables and in Japanese it has four beats, se-n-se-i, and the final i sounds more like a lengthened e. The u of «desu» and «masu» is barely heard in normal speech, and neither is the i of «shita». And the n of «shinbun» is pronounced m because the b after it rubs off on it. None of that shows in Latin letters and all of it can be heard, which is why listening to the phrases before reading them in romaji saves you correcting a bad habit later on.
How romaji is handled here
It is there as support from day one, and there is a switch to remove it the day it gets in the way.
It can be switched off
From «Your account», with one tap. It disappears from lessons, examples, listings and results, so you can test yourself reading kana instead of letters.
Except where it is the answer
In the kana reading quiz the options are romaji and that is where it stays: removing it would leave a question with no possible answers.
And it is never typed by hand
The romaji of every phrase and every kanji is calculated from its kana reading, so it cannot disagree with it. Romaji typed by hand ends up saying something different from the kana next to it.
Questions about romaji
Can you learn Japanese with romaji alone?
You can learn to say a handful of phrases, and that is where it ends. Nothing you read in Japan carries romaji, and Latin script hides the syllable structure the grammar is explained on. As training wheels for the first week it is useful; as a plan, it falls short.
Which romaji system is used?
Hepburn, which is the most widespread and the one used on Japanese station signs. It writes «shi», «chi», «tsu» and «fu» as they sound, instead of forcing them to fit the syllable chart the way other systems do.
How do you type Japanese on a keyboard?
By typing romaji. You type «nihongo» and the computer converts it first to kana and then offers the possible kanji for you to choose from. That is why romaji never disappears completely: it is the normal way to write Japanese on a computer or a phone.
When should you drop romaji?
As soon as you have hiragana, which is a matter of a week. The painless way to do it is to switch it off in stages: first in the phrases you already know and then in everything else. In Hanasuka it is a switch, so you can go back whenever you need to.
Why do some romaji words have an apostrophe, like «kan'i»?
The apostrophe separates an n from the vowel or y that follows it when they belong to different syllables. かんい (simple) is «kan'i», an ん and then an い; without the apostrophe, «kani» would be read かに, which is «crab». For the same reason Friday, きんようび, is written «kin'yōbi».
How is the particle は written in romaji?
As it sounds: «wa». Hepburn writes particles by their pronunciation, so は is «wa», へ is «e» and を is «o», although you sometimes see «wo». That is why in romaji you cannot tell they are the same signs that are read «ha» and «he» inside a word; in kana, on the other hand, you see it straight away.
Can Japanese people read romaji?
Yes: it is taught in primary school and anyone can read it, not least because it is how people type on a computer. But it is not used for real reading: it appears in station names, on signs meant for visitors, in brand names and in passports. A long text written entirely in romaji would be harder for a Japanese reader than one in kana.
Can you answer in romaji in Hanasuka's quizzes?
Yes, where the answer is Japanese: in the reverse vocabulary quiz and in each lesson's writing exercise, answers in kanji, kana or romaji are accepted, and the marking tolerates accents, capitals and punctuation. In the kana reading quiz the options are precisely the romaji of each sign, because there the reading is what is being asked.
Keep going
Hiragana: where Japanese begins
The curvy syllabary. It takes a week to learn and the whole grammar is written with it.
Furigana: the reading written above the kanji
The small kana above the kanji. The reading aid that does not change what you are reading.
Speaking Japanese: the part that hardly ever gets practised
Hear the phrase, say it, and have something tell you whether you said it right.
Move from romaji to kana this week
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